Battle For Mortality
by C. O. Rosette
Summary: Avengers Movieverse. It's been a year since the chitauri attack on New York, and the Avengers are again going about their regular lives. But when a dangerous computer virus hacks it's way into electronics around the world, the group is called into battle again, with the inclusion of a few newly-discovered, young recruits. Now the Avengers have a serious and deadly decision to make.
1. Chapter 1

_"Humans. They are not the cowering wretches we were promised. They stand. They are unruly, and therefore, cannot be ruled," the dark figure struggles to stand up, his hand lifting his overall weight as he splutters. "To challenge them is to court...death." The figure turns his head to the light, revealing Thanos's demented, sadistic grin.  
_

Thanos now looks upon an unseen area. Antithetic lights flash opposite his gaze. The very same contortion as before again beseeches his disfigured face. He gazes into a disoriented screen, always rewinding a very familiar face, pathetically uttering the words, "Because if we can't protect the earth, you can be dammed well sure we'll avenge it." The scene replays a few more times before the connection goes out completely. Feeble mortals, always attempting to show off their nonexistent strength. Humans may be unruly, but they are not undefeatable. "Because..," Thanos's grin becomes wider and even more twisted. "...if I can't rule you, you can be _dammed_ well sure I'll conquer you..."

* * *

There is never an unseen spot anywhere Director Nick Fury goes. No one ever even thinks that even because of his eye patch. Obviously this is but a minor disadvantage to someone like Fury. He is an operative mastermind! Not much can take him by surprise. That's why it's all the more baffling when him and the whole of S.H.I.E.L.D. for the most part are very surprised when they realize what looks like a virus has made it's way into their database. The agents are astonished beyond belief.

Agent Maria Hill sits in her chair, overlooking at a massive screen. She appears to be checking the population count on how many were lost and/ or injured during the time-span of the battle of New York as opposed to how many there were before and then after the battle. It's been months since then, but for a city as big as New York, S.H.I.E.L.D. still has a lot of cleaning up to do. The agent is currently studying the id page of deceased fellow agent and also close friend, Phil Coulson, when an abrupt swarm of numbers suddenly appear onscreen, wiping out any information currently being analyzed from sight and covering the whole screen completely.

Startled by this sudden interruption, Agent Hill stands up from where she is sitting. What's going on? Did she accidentally press a wrong button? No. The computer is assuredly very accurate. It doesn't simply get overridden at the press of a button. Besides, this "glitch-" since she has nothing else to call it at the moment- gives her a really bad feeling in the pit of her gut. Hill isn't normally one to trust in intuition, especially not from something as small as this, but the knot inside of her just to keeps on getting tighter. Her thoughts drift back to Phil for a moment before she shakes her head clear. There's no time for that right now. She doesn't know why, but she must alert the authorities as soon as possible. This is urgent.

* * *

Director Fury stands in one of his mini jets, hovering over the Atlantic. There is an incoming message on the overhead screen. "Director Fury," Agent Clint Barton, aka Hawkeye appears onscreen this time. "We are in need of your assistance. Agent Maria Hill has discovered what looks to be a glitch in the system. It's been spreading through the grid alarmingly fast since then. We need help now!"

Fury shakes his head in disbelief, "We don't get glitches."

Barton pushes farther. This is an emergency, "Sir, this very conversation can get overridden any second if we don't do something fast!" The Barton's face is already beginning to fuzz out.

Fury looks thoughtful. "What do you know about this 'glitch?'" he asks.

"We're unsure what we're dealing with, but whatever it is, it's taking over our database as we speak. We need an expert, stat!"

Fury pauses for a moment. This is driving him from the task currently at hand. He can't do anything about it right now. The screen is almost completely fogged up. Barton's right. They need an expert. "Call in the doctor."

* * *

"So what do you think it is, Dr.?" Agent Hill asks as she and Dr. Erik Selvig brusquely stride down the aisles of the helicarrier. You can sense the tension from all around. The place is already in a mild panic, the glitch is spreading fast and the knot in the pit of Hill's stomach has not gotten any better. If anything, it's worsened. She has a very bad feeling about this. They stop in front of the main computer screen. Dr. Selvig closely studies the pattern of constantly changing numbers on the screen. "We've been unable to track any specific code in these numerals. It still mystifies us that we can't trace anything back to our original database," she explains behind him.

"Well, I'm no engineer, but I'd say this looks like some kind of virus," Selvig concludes when he comes away.

Hill is taken aback by this. That can't be right. "S.H.I.E.L.D.'s computers are immoderate in defense. It's nearly impossible to break into one of them, let alone the whole system," she stutters.

"Nearly is the keyword here, Agent Hill. Something clearly has broken into the whole system," Selvig informs the shocked agent. He turns and starts out the door.

"Well, what do we do?" Hill demands, following him. "Our whole database is corrupted!"

"Be calm, Agent. I will consult my assistant, Miss Jane Foster and we will work on it. Until then, just sit tight and inform the council that we're figuring out what to do."

"Easier said than done," Hill mutters and stops while Dr. Selvig states his directions to the elevator.

Once the elevator doors open, though, Dr. Selvig's other assistant, Darcy Lewis, barrages out frantically, crashes into the doctor himself, and they fall to the floor. "DOCTOR!" she screams hysterically, flopping around on the ground like a fish out water. Hill would probably be more startled by this if not for everything else that is going on.

The doctor struggles up, brushes himself off, and extends his hand to help her up. When they're both on their feet, Dr. Selvig inquires his assistant, "Darcy! What are you doing here? How did you even get in?"

"Doctor!" Darcy gasps for breath. "Something terrible- outside! Come! Quick!" She grabs Selvig's arm and pulls him in the elevator.

"Okay Darcy, I need you to keep calm and tell me what happened," the doctor further inquires as the doors close around them and out of sight.

Suddenly, the knot inside Hill's stomach gets even tighter and she has to take in a shaky breath. Something bids her to look behind her before chasing after the two astrophysists. She tentatively turns her head and pears behind her. The sight that meets her eyes causes her to gasp. Down the hall, through the glass doors, on the main computer screen, and for a split second, Hill thinks she sees Coulson's face, his eyes are sunken in, he has a dull, lifeless look on his face, and he's looking right at her! The image disappears too fast for her to react, but it is quickly replaced by another one, one that stays onscreen for five whole seconds before it finally disappears and Hill's breath gets stuck in her throat. The face was of a man she didn't recognize, yet it felt so familiar. She doesn't even think he was human. He wore a gold, metallic helmet and had the most dead, wrinkly skin Hill had ever seen on a living person. He looked blind, but it felt as if he were boring straight into Hill's eyes. The feeling that has been imploring her for the whole week finally reaches it's peek. She conclusively turns and heads for the elevator. First New York and now this. The authorities must know about this immediately.

* * *

Nick Fury stands at his podium, discussing the events leading up to the disaster that was this last week with the rest of the World Security Council. The tragedy that happened the other day reported by Agent Hill, Dr. Selvig, and Darcy Lewis at the scene while the helicarrier was docked by the Portsmouth, is either what one would describe as a miracle, or the start of the apocalypse (if the alien attack on New York isn't already).

Hill's description went as follows: when she finally arrived outside the carrier, she made her way through the crowd of horrified people to reveal a small animal, a squirrel to be exact, crawling down the sidewalk. It's fur was matted with dried blood and it's leg was twisted beyond repair. The unnerving part, however, was that it was flattened almost to the ground. A few bystanders claimed to have seen the same squirrel, dead in the middle of the street, completely crushed by all the tires going down that street just the day before. All it's internal organs should have been squished! But there it was, alive and on the sidewalk- in bad shape- but alive. Others also believed to have seen traces of a green, goopy substance following the rodent from the sewer, which is a little too uncomfortably native to something else that had happened in New York just a few months after the big battle. If this is the evidence they think it is, then not only one city will be in danger this time.

"What do you suppose we do?" someone from the council queries.

"Judging by what has happened within the past year, we need professionals to help us solve this problem," Fury reasons. "and I think I know exactly who to call."


	2. Chapter 2

It is very dark. The ear-splitting static of the police sirens above feel almost like faint whispers compared to the soundless tension drifting constantly about the darkened hallway.

As usual, up on the surface- the city where many civilians walk about, going through their daily lives like everything is normal- it is quite busy, the way one might expect. Many would see how it is a deep contrast as to what is going on down below.

Deep, down, among the sewers, a secret organization is finally about to be confronted for their notorious deeds. Not that this is the worst case Agents Barton and Romanoff have come across during the span of their careers, but it certainly isn't the type of thing that should be going on literally underground of a big city like San Francisco. In fact, to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s surprise, this illegal business has been smuggling highly toxic and expensive ingredients within their drugs for quite a while now. They were shocked to find that it is no ordinary meth lab.

Also, it's not all completely underground. There are actually a lot more ordinary citizens who have heard about this place than one may initially think. It's become a bit of a conspiracy among some parts of the city about a shady, illegal company smuggling top-notch drugs to people. What these people don't know, however, is that the contents of these drugs are not just "top-notch," but the people who manufactured them have somehow managed to get their disgusting, grimy hands on illegal chemicals that have been classified by not the government, but the World Council themselves. Even a whiff of a concentrated sample of the stuff can put you in a coma for life. God knows how the people who have inhaled, drank, or done whatever to these chemicals have survived, if they did- which is a very unsure question, by the way.

Agent Natasha Romanoff, also known by her Avengers Initiative, Black Widow, silently creeps along the wall, making almost no sound to the average, human ear at all. Her alias stands true, as she sneaks as noiselessly as a spider sneaking up on her prey. They don't know it yet, but this ragtag group of lowlife scum have somehow gotten themselves snagged in this particular spider's web for quite some time now. The web also happens to be named S.H.I.E.L.D..

The agent cannot see her targets yet, but she can tell how close they are by way of sound. The agent knows very well that she's got the situation under full control, always being exceptionally confident in her abilities as expected. This is by far one of the easiest missions she's been assigned for a very long time, what with the chitauri attack New York a year ago, she's not so sure if anything can compare, really. Nonetheless, she knows both as common sense and in that it's her job that she still needs to be careful and also as stealthy as possible if she is to infiltrate her targets' domain. Her uniform blends perfectly in the dark and with the slimy, sewer walls. She has her gun intact, just in case she just so happens to be spotted coming across one of them during her voyage to the heart of their misdeeds and they conveniently decide to open fire. Also, Romanoff knows that her fellow agent, Barton, or "the hawk," is right outside on the surface, or "the secret hawk's nest," ready to be contacted by her in case anything goes wrong. Yep, she's definitely got this under control, Romanoff thinks after swiftly going through the checklist of safety nets they have set up in the back of her mind.

Romanoff stops, abruptly and spontaneous. She hears something. Her keen ears detect a slight movement in the dark, footsteps slowly approaching in her direction. As they steadily sound closer, Romanoff reaches for her belt, readily fondling the handle of her gun when she finds it.

The footsteps become increasingly louder and louder until finally, Romanoff is sure the owner of the footsteps is right around the corner. Romanoff reverts back to her earlier stance, that of a waiting spider, completely still on her web, waiting for her prey to unknowingly become trapped within her boundaries. As her potential prey finally comes into view, the spider is already still as a statue, making zero sound. She knows it's best to stay unseen before making any attempt to attack anyone. A rugged but young man in a grey beanie, wearing a black, leather overcoat and worn-out jeans walks around the corner right past her nose and continues down the other side of the hall, his eyes showing no signs of her detection.

After he is gone, Romanoff knows it is time to take action. There's no time for waiting around anymore. She can hear the voices getting clearer as she inches closer and closer. She is within range. It's time.

She travels until she is right up against the wall of their main room. She can hear their current conversations with their illegal customers. Slowly, she again reaches for her belt, not for her gun this time, but for the provided cell phone she uses specifically for her work. S.H.I.E.L.D. always provides the best. She finds the phone and dials in her colleague, "I'm going in."

"Alright. Good luck," Barton confirms from his post.

Immediately abandoning her stay-in-the-dark quip, Romanoff briskly and confidently walks right in the middle of the dealers' meeting, cocks her gun, pointing in around the room to show that she's armed and announces to them that they have been discovered, "Everyone, hands on your head. You are surrounded. If I hear a word from anyone, the gun goes off." The other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents finally come into view from out of their hiding places. The investigation has begun.

* * *

The mission obviously was a success and the two agents sit in the jet back to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, reviewing the events back in their heads. They sit in silence for a while before Clint finally speaks, "You were good out there. You sounded just like a cop."

"Maybe I should consider changing my job," Natasha replies, smirking.

Clint chuckles then speaks up again, "You do know that we're going to have to deal with the catastrophe that Maria was talking about happening back in Portsmouth, right?"

"Of course I know," Natasha replies again, not meeting Clint's eyes. "But that's the thing. I just can't help but wonder what it is that's exactly going on." Clint turns his head in her direction, eyebrow raised. That is the obvious thing that everybody's wondering. She looks down. "Don't you think it's a little suspicious that Fury sent us on a small mission out of the blue while there's something big taking place before actually calling us into action?"

"Everyone's suspecting that, and it's most likely very true, so true that I'll bet Fury isn't even trying that hard to cover up his tracks in this one, probably because he already knows that we all know. What, after..."

"...after New York," they both are still conflicted about what happened a whole year ago.

"We may not have been fully aware of it at the time, but I'm sure we weren't completely blind before this whole started. We might've known deep, down inside that he was up to something. We just chose to ignore it," Natasha can't argue with that. All of S.H.I.E.L.D. is loyal to their director, but not blind to the fact that does things behind their backs without consulting them at all. It wouldn't be so surprising if they found he was keeping a few things from them in such a case as this.

"Do you think he's thinking of- you know- calling the whole group in again?"

"Maybe," seeing their fellow avengers again after a year out of commission does not seem like a bad idea in this type of situation to the two agents.


	3. Chapter 3

A barely visible bead of sweat starts it's journey down Tony Stark's face. It doesn't show at all or get anywhere, obviously. Despite it being short lived, this is the only implication that this man is seriously anticipating an incoming opportunity.

When would be the right time, Tony thinks to himself as he watches his girlfriend direct the many different businesspeople to their assigned jobs from where he's standing on the other side of the catwalk. He already sent Rhodey away. He had stuff to do anyway. But there are still all these men and women standing and talking or just walking around with wine he paid for. He looks at his watch. The meeting was supposed to end at three-thirty and everyone was supposed to be gone by five minutes later, but here a majority of them all are at roughly six-o'-five, standing out on the Stark Tower catwalk like it's just a regular day. This is mostly because of Rhodes leaving in the first place, leaving the checkout counter unattended which explains exactly why everyone is still here. The last time he checked, all these people were finished with the errands they needed to do here and should've left a long time ago.

Sometimes it seems Tony never gets any time alone anymore. It would seem after all the past insanity with Extremis and the Mandarin, he would be exactly what he always declares it made him, a changed man. But no matter how much more mature he's become and how well he handles his life being even busier than it use to be, it doesn't stop him from wondering if he can ever get an ounce of personal space every now and then. There are many aspects of his life that have changed since Extremis and one of those aspects happens to be his tendency to not have every single part of his private life being insanely flashy and exploited to the public.

Tony finally starts to walk down the steps from where he's standing toward Pepper. He's so focused on getting to the other side of the catwalk so he can at least see his girlfriend more than barely over the railing that he almost doesn't notice the distinct vibration emanating from his pocket. Dammit! Can't anyone leave him alone? Vacantly, he wonders who it is. Despite his annoyances of all these people, he hasn't been bothered by anyone for approximately an hour or two. They must know he wants to be left alone. He guesses it's probably Rhodey calling because he forgot to do something while he was at the expo so he can bug Tony or Pepper to do it for him. He looks at his phone to see who it is. When he does see, what hits him is a small pang of surprise and maybe a bit of sorrow too.

Tony slides the talk button on his phone and prepares himself for a wordy conversation, "So how's S.H.I.E.L.D. been lately? It's nice that we're all connected to each other now. I don't suppose anyone is monitoring us."

"Mr. Stark, surely a tech specialist like you would know S.H.I.E.L.D. makes sure it's firewalls are up twenty-four-seven so that no one snooping around has virtual access," Agent Hill's voice pauses pointedly after the last few words.

Agent Hill, Tony thinks to himself. That's right. It will never again be Phil. Not anymore, "I didn't mean outsiders."

"I can assure you there are no S.H.I.E.L.D. monitors currently supervising this conversation or any others between any S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and members of the Avengers Initiative," Agent Hill speaks coolly on the other end of the extension.

"Can you really?" Tony asks the Agent, doubtingly and inquiringly. He continues his trip down the concrete steps and over to Pepper, the phone still by his ear. A few people see him finally in action and half-rush to him, calling his name while others are his saving grace and shoo the the demanding people away, pointing out that he's on the phone and they can get to him later or talk to Pepper.

"I think you know the answer to that question, Mr. Stark," Hill keeps with her stoic, businesslike tone as she continues. "Now let's get to the point, shall we? You may have heard of the tragic events that happened near Portsmouth last week."

"You seem a little shaken, Maria. Don't tell me you're scared of a little rodent."

"This isn't about the rodent itself. It's about what happened to it and you know it, and don't call me Maria! My first name is Agent!..You cannot imagine how relieved I am that this conversation isn't being monitored."

"So it really isn't being monitored then..."

"That's what I told you. I am not entitled to lie."

"Oh, right. It's your boss that does that."

"I don't think Director Fury would appreciate that sort of accusation."

"Alright, seriously, cut the crap, Hill. You're his second in command and there are secrets he has that he won't even tell you about."

"Look Tony, I'll be brutally honest with you. What happened at New York and what is happening all over the world is worrying us as well as sending civilians into panic. We're going to need you to come in."

"What do you need me to do this time?"

"Not long after the invasion attempt on New York, a biologist named Dr. Curt Connors created a substance that could make an organism stronger in many ways and aspects. One of these aspects are believed to include the rejuvenation of the dead. We've managed to collect the chemical which we feel may be also linked to the super soldier serum. We can't uncover the rest of this epidemic without you but first we'll need you to contact Dr. Banner."

"Why can't you just contact him yourselves?"

"We think it's for the best if you did it. He trusts you."

"Let me guess, the real reason is top secretly classified and I just have to go along with it or else S.H.I.E.L.D.'s huge, convoluted plan to gain military power will fail and the universe will be doomed."

"Don't tell Fury."

"Hey, he keeps his secrets and I'll keep mine."

"We're very grateful you're willing to do this for us and for the world. I promise you won't regret this."

"Believe me. I'm more than willing to do this."

Tony hangs up the phone and inwardly sighs. He begins to make his way down the rest of the steps and across the main section of the catwalk to the other flight. A lot of people have left by now but the few that are still here notice him not on his phone and go to him, again continuously bombarding him with their constant, unanswerable questions. Tony just ignores them and keeps heading toward his destination, walking straight past Pepper and to his on-deck elevator. He escapes his questioning cohorts as the elevator doors open and he quickly steps in and the doors close behind him. He punches in the numbers to the floor of his office and takes his phone out again. He's going to need some peace and quiet if he's going to call Dr. Banner.


End file.
